Taken from "Schubert Year by Year", released on Stone Records in preparation for the 2014 Oxford Lieder Festival: "The Schubert Project" will be the UK's first-ever complete performance of Schubert's songs, 10th Oct - 1st Nov 2014. The disc features one song from every year of Schubert's creative life, performed by a variety of distinguished artists.http://www.oxfordlieder.co.uk/schubert-projecthttp://www.stonerecords.co.ukhttp://pangolinsteatime.com

Translation:

The Elfking

Who rides so late through the windy night?It is the father and his child.He holds the boy, Warm and safe.

Son, why do you hide your face in fear?Father, do you not see the Elfking?With his crown and train?Son, it's just the mist.

Come with me, lovely childWe'll play gamesThere are flowers on the beach andMy mother has golden clothes

Father, can't you hearWhat the Elfking is promising me?Be calm, my boy -- It's only the wind in the leaves.

Lovely boy, will you come with me?My daughters will wait on youMy daughters will sing and dance for youand rock you to sleep.

Father, do you not seeThe Elfking's daughters there?Son, it's the old willows shiningIn the moonlight.

I love you -- I'm aroused by your beautiful formAnd if you won't come, I will take you by forceFather, father, he has grabbed me.The Elfking has hurt me.

The father shudders. He rides fast, the groaning boy in his arms,Anxious, he reaches the farm.In his arms, the boy is dead.

Beethoven - Moonlight Sonata (FULL) - Piano Sonata No. 14
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The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C♯ minor "Quasi una fantasia", op. 27, No. 2, by Ludwig van Beethoven
The sonata has three movements:
1 mvt: Adagio sostenuto.
2 mvt: Allegretto (click to go at 6:00 min).
3 mvt: Presto agitato (click to go at 8:05 min).
Adagio sostenuto
The first movement, in C♯ minor, is written in an approximate truncated sonata form. The movement opens with an octave in the left hand and a triplet figuration in the right. A melody that Hector Berlioz called a "lamentation", mostly by the right hand, is played against an accompanying ostinato triplet rhythm, simultaneously played by the right hand. The movement is played pianissimo or "very quietly", and the loudest it gets is mezzo forte or "moderately loud".
The adagio sostenuto has made a powerful impression on many listeners; for instance, Berlioz said of it that it "is one of those poems that human language does not know how to qualify. The work was very popular in Beethoven's day, to the point of exasperating the composer himself, who remarked to Carl Czerny, "Surely I've written better things.
Allegretto
The second movement is a relatively conventional scherzo and trio, a moment of relative calm written in D-flat major, the enharmonic equivalent of C♯ major, the more easily-notated parallel major of C♯ minor. Franz Liszt described the second movement as "a flower between two chasms."[citation needed] The slight majority of the movement is in piano, but a handful of sforzandos and forte-pianos helps to maintain the movement's cheerful disposition.
Presto agitato
The stormy final movement (C♯ minor), in sonata form, is the weightiest of the three, reflecting an experiment of Beethoven's (also carried out in the companion sonata, Opus 27, No. 1 and later on in Opus 101) placement of the most important movement of the sonata last. The writing has many fast arpeggios and strongly accented notes, and an effective performance demands lively and skillful playing.
It is thought that the C-sharp minor sonata, particularly the third movement, was the inspiration for Frédéric Chopin's Fantaisie-Impromptu, which manifests the key relationships of the sonata's three movements.
Of the final movement, Charles Rosen has written "it is the most unbridled in its representation of emotion. Even today, two hundred years later, its ferocity is astonishing.
Beethoven's heavy use of sforzando notes, together with just a few strategically located fortissimo passages, creates the sense of a very powerful sound in spite of the predominance of piano markings throughout. Within this turbulent sonata-allegro, there are two main themes, with a variety of variation techniques utilized.
Beethoven's pedal mark
See also: Piano history and musical performance, Mute (music), and Piano pedals#Beethoven and pedals
At the opening of the work, Beethoven included a written direction that the sustain pedal should be depressed for the entire duration of the first movement. The Italian reads: "Si deve suonare tutto questo pezzo delicatissimamente e senza sordino". ("One must play this whole piece [meaning "movement"] very delicately and without dampers.") The modern piano has a much longer sustain time than the instruments of Beethoven's day, leaving for a rather blurry and dissonant tone.
One option for dealing with this problem is to perform the work on a restored or replicated piano of the kind Beethoven knew. Proponents of historically informed performance using such pianos have found it feasible to perform the work respecting Beethoven's original direction.

You are walking down into the heart of a mountain. In it, you are told, is the one you've come to see. Welcome to
the hall...of the Mountain King.
(Please...Don't mention the Nightmare Before Christmas.)

Polonaise, Op. 53
Evgeny Kissin, piano
The Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53 (nicknamed Heroic, or Heroique) for solo piano was written by Frédéric Chopin in 1842. This masterpiece is one of Chopin's most popular compositions and has always been a favorite of the classical piano repertoire. The piece requires exceptional pianistic skills and requires virtuosity to be played at an appropriate level of quality. Although the piece is labeled as a polonaise, it has little to do with the typical polonaise style. It presents two sections with a polonaise rhythm, but most of it has no particular polonaise attribute. It has been said that Chopin had composed the piece having a free and powerful Poland in mind, which may have led him to label it as a polonaise. Another possibility is that this Polonaise is closely related to the Polonaise in A major, Op. 40, No. 1, known as the Military Polonaise, which, unlike Op. 53, is a true polonaise.
Frederic Chopin (1810 - 1849)

WARNING: Cannons may make dogs bark, scare your mom, leave your neighbor dumbfounded, make cats panic, wake you up in the middle of the night shouting at the top of your lungs because you think you are being robbed, scare the crap out of you, and/or blow up your ears and brains; among other things...
The 1812 Overture, composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1880. This version with cannons!
No copyright infringement intended. The rights of this composition go to their respective owners.
**I'm talking about the recordings**

Though the composition is public domain, the performance belongs to the record label that recorded the following performer (see YouTube's attributes in the full description):
Hannes Kästner
Album:
Bach, J.S.: Organ Music - Preludes and Fugues - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor - Chorales Preludes.
This album was released in 1988 and it's also available on ITunes :
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/bach-j-s-organ-music-preludes-fugues-toccata-fugue/id389168578

- Composer: Franz Peter Schubert (31 January 1797 -- 19 November 1828)
- Performers: Murray Perahia (piano), Radu Lupu (piano)
- Year of recording: 1984
Fantasia for piano, 4 hands in F minor, D. 940 (Op. 103), written in 1828.
00:00 - I. Allegro molto moderato
05:06 - II. Largo
07:51 - III. Allegro vivace
10:50 - IV. Con delicatezza
13:47 - V. Final (Tempo primo)
Schubert wrote more popular works for piano, four hands and longer works for piano, four hands, but he never wrote a better work for piano, four hands than the Fantaisie in F minor, D. 940. Composed in January 1828, the work was premiered by Schubert and his friend, composer Franz Lachner, on 9 May of the same year at one the year's few Schubertiades. The work is in four continuous sections unified by the opening theme's melancholy tone of endless tragedy.
- It opens in the tonic with the sad, simple, and soulful tune Allegro molto moderato.
- This is followed by a stormy Largo in F sharp minor of tremendous pathos and power,
- then an Allegro vivace Scherzo also in F sharp minor.
- The tonic returns for the final section, a massive double fugue with a new subject set against the opening tune as a second subject. After an enormous polyphonic climax and a brief pause, the sad, simple, and soulful tune returns one last time, battered and beaten, but still singing its elegiac song.
The work was dedicated to Karoline Esterházy von Galánta, the daughter of his one time patron, the Duke of Esterházy, and bears an opus number assigned by the composer himself. Schubert was (unrequited) in love with Karoline, he composed the fantasia in such a way, that their hands would touch from time to time...